Cosmos 1494

NSSDCA/COSPAR ID: 1983-091A

Description

From 1969 KB Yuzhnoye built the Lira targets for exercise and test of PVO air defence and space tracking systems. The second generation consisted of Taifun-1 and Taifun-2 satellites, which differed in the type of equipment installed. Taifun-1 would release up to 25 Romb sub-satellites, while Taifun-2 did not. In 1972 KB-3 under B E Khimrov, with the co-operation of assisting organisations and the Ministry of Defence, completed the draft project. The first Taifun-1 was completed in 1974, and flight trials were conducted in the second half of the 1970's using Kosmos-3M launch vehicles from Plesetsk and Kapustin Yar. The heads of the State Trials Commission were B N Karpov, N N Zhukov, and B G Zudin. Taifun-1 normally released 25 Romb subsatellites into an orbit of 300 to 500 km altitude, at inclinations of 50.7 degrees (from Kapustin Yar) and 65.9 74, or 82.9 degrees (from Plesetsk). Two unique missions in 1989-1990 were put into 180 km x 1550 km orbits at 65.8 degrees. With this higher apogee the payload was reduced to 10 Romb subsatellites. Vektor satellites were spherical in shape, about 2 m in diameter, the surface covered with solar cells and equipped with four antennae.